El Paso Community College is proud to announce nine Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) students have been chosen to be part of the Louis Stokes Alliance Minority Participation Program (LSAMP).

The program provides undergraduate students with the opportunity to conduct undergraduate research during the summer through the Summer Research Academy (SRA).

LSAMP is National Science Foundation (NSF) funded and the mission is to increase the number of underrepresented minority students pursuing degrees in STEM careers.

The alliance includes all the universities in the Texas system and two junior colleges: El Paso Community College and Tyler College. This year there were a total of 200 applicants.

Itzel Tejeda, Noe Calderon, Kimberly Ornelas, Josue Lujan, and Hazael Hernandez were selected to participate in the SRA at the University of Texas (UT) Austin, Blake Mireles was selected to participate in the SRA at UT Arlington and Carolina Jaquez, Claudia Garcia and Edwin Melendez were selected to participate in the SRA at UT El Paso.

Itzel Tejeda said, “Another success in my path to become a top-researcher is earning the LSAMP summer internship at the University of Texas in Austin. This is an exciting opportunity that will help me grow as a student and a professional.” Blake Mireles added, “I hope to network with individuals that will be able to help me along in the medical field as I pursue an MD/PhD in my graduate studies.”

The research projects the students will be conducting during the summer align with their major they are pursuing and will allow them to network and acquire invaluable experience in their field. Students will be able to apply the concepts they learn in the classroom to solve real life problems.

After they complete their projects they will be presenting in the LSAMP conference this September hosted by UT El Paso.

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